School Libraries Head for the Edge: Rants, Recommendations, and Reflections: Douglas A. Johnson: Linworth

School Libraries Head for the Edge

Rants, Recommendations, and Reflections

School Libraries Head for the Edge

Rants, Recommendations, and Reflections

Description

This compilation of media and technology guru Doug Johnson's Library Media Connection columns offers his unique perspective on the role of the library media specialist in today's world.

School Libraries Head for the Edge: Rants, Recommendations, and Reflections collects Doug Johnson's wildly popular "Head for the Edge" column for Library Media Connection. In one convenient volume, it brings together the best of Johnson's writing—topical, timely, technical, and theoretical—on the world of school media and the most effective ways libraries can use technology to serve teachers and students.

School Libraries Head for the Edge ranges across the breadth of its critically important subject, with chapters on libraries and education in transition, professional skills and development, building student research and technology skills, technology in the libraries and in education, and bringing an ethical, values-based sensibility to the use of media in school libraries. Throughout, Johnson tells it like it is, with cutting-edge coverage of the latest trends in library media and technology and incisive commentary on everything from the ramifications of Web 2.0 to what's new for tomorrow.

Introduction: 800 Words
Chapter 1: On Libraries and Education in Transition
Making Change Work for You
The Sound of the Other Shoe Dropping
New Resources, New Selection Skills
The 21st-Century Teacher
What Happened to the Good Old Days of Education?
The "M" Word
Exposing Shameful Little Secrets
Schools Are More than the Sum of Their Scores
The Importance of Bricks
How to Destroy Any School Library Program
The Other Shoe Redux
Reflection
Chapter 2: On Professional Skills and Dispositions
Praise for Media Specialists Who…
How We Spend Our Days
Librarians Are from Venus; Technologists Are from Mars
Intelligence Deficit Syndrome
Getting the Job You Deserve
Join Us
Weed!
Librarianship as a Subversive Profession
A Secret Weapon—Niceness
Names Can Never Hurt Me
HPLUKs
A Trick Question
Perceptions
Constructive Criticism
Reflection
Chapter 3: On Reading, Research, and Technology Skills
Embracing Ambiguity
Copy, Paste, Plagiarize
The Changing Face of School Research
A Work in Progress
Getting What You Ask For
Creating Fat Kids Who Don't Like to Read
Everyday Problem Solving
Once Upon a Time
Foiling the Language Police
The Other Side of Plagiarism
Owning Our Curriculum
Caution with Collaboration
The Decline of Reading
Evaluating Collectively Created Information
Nickel and Dimed
What Gets Tested Gets Taught
Building Capacity for Empathy
Reflection
Chapter 4: On Technology in Libraries
The Future of Books
The Future of Books Revisited
Old Folks and Technology
Technology Dinosaurs
Letter from the Flat World Library Corporation
Librarians 2.0
My Next Library Catalog Needs…
Reflection
Chapter 5: On Technology in Education
WIIFM?
A Cautionary Column
Examining the Enchantment of Technology
The School of Hard Knocks
Faith-Based Computing
Did You Hear the One About…?
Reflection
Chapter 6: On Managing Good
Six Ways to Beat the Study Hall Syndrome
Giving and Taking
Advisory Advice
No Principal Left Behind
Top 10 Things Baby Teachers Should Know about School Libraries
A Valentine
Whose Voices Are Most Powerful?
Common Sense Economy
The Power of Parents
Starting Off on the Right Foot
Reflection
Chapter 7: On Determining Our Values
Mischief and Mayhem
Creating High Temptation Environments
Freedom and Filters
So Tell Us a Little about Yourself
The Need for Community
Don't Defend That Book
A Father-Son Chat
From Cop to Counselor on Copyright
Reflection
Afterword: Why I Write for Publication (and You Should Too)
Works Cited

Product details

Published	Oct 27 2009
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	212
ISBN	9781586833923
Imprint	Linworth
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

With some fresh and innovative ideas, Doug Johnson comes to readers with no shortage of creative advice for readers. School Libraries Head for the Edge is a must for any school library who wants to be the best resource for their students they can.

Midwest Book Review
Chapters end with quotes, questions, and self-evaluative reflection that readers will be inspired to mirror. For all practitioners.

School Library Journal
As a library district supervisor in the 1900s, Doug Johnson encountered resistance from librarians who fought the notion that libraries were about something other than print. His response to that resistance led to a blog, and the blog led to a regular column in Technology Connection, a journal that later morphed into Library Media Connection. This volume brings together dozens of Johnson's best "rants" (his term) from his regular column 'Head for the Edge'. Some contributions are diatribes, some biographical, some philosophical. All are thought-provoking, offered in snippets that are easy to read in just a few minutes. One walks away from the book feeling as if you've met Johnson, who has earned your respect.

Reference & Research Book News
School Libraries Head for the Edge is full of observations that cause the reader to pause, reflect, reconsider.

Journeys (dmcordell.blogspot.com)
This book is a quick and useful read. The short column length (around 800 words) makes it ideal for snatching a quick read between classes, and the complete table of contents makes it ideal for browsing by subject. Every column is concise, pithy, insightful, pragmatic, and laced with Johnson's wry humor. . . . Because Johnson works in the public school system, he targets their situations more often, but practitioners at all types of schools will find plenty of applicable information as well.

VOYA
Entertaining? Yes. Thought provoking? Always. . . . You don't have to agree with Johnson's ideas, but his purpose is to make you defend what you do stand for.

Teacher Librarian