Web Browsing Helps Boost Your Efficiency and Work Rate

Flickr image by Spencer E Holtaway

Have to share this one: a new study just published reveals that workers that take regular breaks to browse the internet, checking on sites they choose make for a more productive worker.  The study, entitled ‘Impact on Cyberloafing  on Psychological Engagement’ showed that the pleasure incurred by visiting sites they like rejuvenates the worker and helps boost their efficiency and work rate.

“The study recommends that employers don’t over-restrict worker’s web access and to allow time for limited personal web browsing to help boost productivity.”

Well, forget any guilt – web browsing makes us more productive and effective workers. I propose we use this study as ammunition to ask management to unblock our social media sites at school. What do you think?

Source: Quinton O’Reilly, Simply Zesty

Power your school library

Doug Johnson of the famous Blue Skunk Blog has posted about this fabulous programme from the State of Colorado, which promotes Highly Effective School Library Programmes, he recommended to all his followers that they share this with their school librarians.  Indeed it is well worth sharing.  I’ve been watching the videos on YouTube and they are full of things to make you think.  There are PDF files to download and print if you want and all manner of school library goodness on there.

I’ve embedded the video on instruction as an example of how great these are.

 

Judy O’Connell showing, telling and teaching

One of the absolute best things about the SLANZA conference for me was the chance to meet Judy O’Connell.  I’ve been following her writing on her blog Hey Jude for a long long time and night after night I watch with amazement as she shares links galore on Twitter and now she is actively posting on the SLANZA Facebook page.  I like her take on the world, the way she shows practical ways of using the web 2.0  technology she is keen on.  I like the fact that she is an Australian Teacher Librarian who has worked in school libraries for a long time and who is fully aware of the environment we work in, the challenges we face and she likes practical solutions to everyday problems, and best of all she likes to share her knowledge.  She now works as a Lecturer at Charles Sturt University and is training today’s students to be tomorrows education leaders.

Judy loves technology and she loves sharing technology and I love people like that.  I was really lucky to get to ‘play’ with Judy during one of the workshop sessions (Who? Wagging? Me? Never!) and that was time really valuably spent and I learnt such a lot in that time it was just staggering.  From impromptu sessions around Judy’s iPad outside the auditorium with a bunch of fellow conference goers, to her fantastic lightening speed workshop Judy shared so much information and ‘stuff you can use’ in a very short three days that my brain is still spinning.

Below is a link to the google doc that Catherine Lee and I typed in tandem (Yay for Google docs) while we sat in the workshop (Miriam did the tweeting).  If you couldn’t get to conference we really hope that the doc gives you an in to the feel of the workshop and that you can use some of the things in there.  Click here to go to the document.  As it states in the document everything is available in the Livebinder.  There is so much in there that it will take me a long time to work through it all, I keep finding new treasures.

#SLANZA11 – Twitter stream

One thing I have managed to do in the last week, while recovering from post-conference “exploding brain” syndrome (thanks Greig Daniels!) is to trawl through the conference twitter stream and put together an archive of sorts, of the sometimes amusing and mostly pretty useful and fairly linky tweets from this awesome event.

All in all, about 30 people were tweeting from or about the event – myself and Bridget and Julia (welcome to the blog, Julia!) among them.

If you were at conference, I hope this archive will help you remember and find some of the great stuff that was shared by various presenters and speakers.

If you couldn’t be there, reading through the twitter stream should give you an idea of what went on, and point you in the direction of some fantastic readings, resources, and connections.

There are also a couple of shared Google documents you can read:

• Donna Watt: It starts with you (a strategic approach to saving school libraries, one library at a time)
• Judy O’Connell: Find it fast and get things done

Are you ready? Advocacy rev up from Library Girl

A flurry of postings, just shows you what you can do when you are putting off writing up your revalidation journal.

Clipped from: lib-girl.blogspot.com (share this clip)

This post from Library Girl has really made me think, as she almost always does (please read the comments as well).  How well do you market yourself?  If you went to Donna Watt’s presentation at the SLANZA conference then this post will also tie in some of the things Donna talked about  strategic planning and branding and marketing yourself.  You’ll get the link to the google doc of that conference session on this blog soon.

We really need to get out there and show our teachers how good we are and what we can do for them and for their students.  I for one am going to get this poster printed out and laminated and put it up in the library, but more than that I am going to put it in our staff’s pigeonholes.  I want them to see it and talk about it and understand more fully exactly how useful I am in the school.  I’m not just ‘the book and computer lady’ I can do all kinds of things for all kinds of people and particularly for every single curriculum area.

Also it is worth remembering what Joyce Valenza (Oh Great One as I refer to her) You can’t do business in a pumpkin sweater.  Get your professionalism polished up and get out there and sell yourself.

Sorry about the coding here.  Cant remove it without removing the slide.

<div style=”width:477px” id=”__ss_8693280″> <strong style=”display:block;margin:12px 0 4px”><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/jlagarde/librarians-are-ready&#8221; title=”Librarians Are Ready” target=”_blank”>Librarians Are Ready</a></strong> <div style=”padding:5px 0 12px”> View more <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/&#8221; target=”_blank”>documents</a> from <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/jlagarde&#8221; target=”_blank”>Jennifer LaGarde</a> </div> </div>

The Great Library Stereotypometer

Via Stephen Abrams always fabulous blog this comes from Ned Potter, The Real Wikiman. Both of these guys have excellent things to say and if you got your Google Reader or Feedly sorted out after conference I heartily recommend subscribing to them.  They are also on Twitter of course.

Anyway hopefully when you click the infographic below it will take you to a larger more readable image on Flickr.  Where do you fit into the stereotypometer?  Do you fit?  Discuss!

As for me, I fit the wears a cardigan and likes a gin, yes I can knit – but don’t often, I like cats and lurve Social Media. I so do fit the stereotype!

Advocacy – they’ll miss you if you go

This list of 100 things that students miss when their libraries are closed was posted to the OZTL_NET listserv a couple of weeks ago, no chance to share till now.  It would be useful for anybody doing some advocacy for their school library.  This is the website for the Vision Tour of School Libraries which is promoting outstanding school libraries and this website is Dr Nancy Everhart’s homage to this journey, she is the current President of the American Association of School Libraries.  The tour comprises 35 school libraries which were nominated by their states.  Cool idea, but the reason they have to do it is not cool, they are seriously under threat and closures are happening all over in the USA.

At a recent network meeting we heard of a Primary school in Dunedin who will be losing their library because of the growth of their school, this after spending a long time building up the usage and making a great space for their staff and students.  It is great that the school is growing but really sad that the library is the thing that has to go to make way for that growth.  The main thing that depressed me hearing of this was that the school values teaching and learning but doesn’t see that the library is intrinsically part of that and can just be packed up into a cupboard.  I understand the issues but that doesn’t mean that the students should miss out on having a library.

The list  is taken from “Standards for the 21st Century Learner by the American Association of School Librarians, suggestions from members of the American Association of School Librarians, and students in the school libraries of the United States.”

The link is here

Check out the Theme Song section.  It is really cute.  Has downloadable music and lyrics!