What's New In Pioneer Library?

Today, we'll explore all of the amazing resources available to you and your students, from school AND at home, through Pioneer Library from UEN. We'll keep the information here very brief. 

Bookmark this page as a quick guide to Pioneer Resources by topic or category. Teachers and students can access Pioneer from home by heading to http://pioneer.uen.org, using pioneer and search as the password to login. The password changes once a year, but you can always head back to the Pioneer main page from school to see what the current password is.

Once we have completed our tour of Pioneer, you may want to partake in the Pioneer Library Scavenger Hunt that you can use or adapt for use in your school or classroom. All that I ask is that instead of doing the last section on the Visual Thesaurus (which is not in Pioneer any longer), that you explore another section of Pioneer NOT already included in the scavenger hunt and write 3 of your own questions of resources or information to find. I'll compile these questions, and add it back to a MASTER Scavenger Hunt, which I'll include here for your use later on.

Filed under  //  CultureGrams   Pioneer   SUMS   UEN   eMedia  
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Get The Word Out! New Tools to Communicate Your Media Message

In our 2-hour session today, we'll show you some new ways to let your students, teachers and parents know about the amazing things that are going on in your library or media center. Knowledge is power, and the more that your stakeholders know about your library, the more likely they will be to use the materials and resources you have to offer.

Here's the handout, complete with step-by-step instructions, links and resources: http://bit.ly/hDIvAl

Let's go! The first step in this whole process is transparency - spread the word about you and your program in any venue open to you. Today, we'll take you through the process of setting up 3 different services to aid you in this, and then we'll tie them all together in the end to make you Masters of your Message!

First off, share everything you can with an easy to maintain web site or blog. Blog about new books, suggested readings, or other great things happening in your library:
  • Blogger.com - For longer entries. Preview stories, discuss new offerings, publicize upcoming events, etc. Quickly create a new site and start writing!
  • Twitter - Twitter is a micro-blog - great for short updates, sharing links to incredible web resources, or as a 'shout-out' to recognize the great things you see everyday. Here's an example from E-Valley.
Share your new, featured or favorite books in different ways:
Let's tie it all together
  • Create a Blogger site to highlight your students or your recommendations
  • Create a Twitter account for sharing quick bits of information like upcoming events, new books that have been added to the library. Also, search Twitter for other topics or users with your similar interests.
  • Create a Shelfari account, and add some books from Amazon or a selection of your top recommendations or what you are reading now
  • Now, add in the Shelfari and Twitter widgets to your new site to make it all work together!
  • Lastly, let your school web master know about your new site so that they can highlight it and link to it from your school site.

Filed under  //  SUMS   Shelfari   Twitter   Web 2.0   blogs  
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