COLLECT + CONNECT

This year the 2020 South Dakota Festival of Books will be virtual and there's still time to register for this mostly free event! It'll kick off with a welcome Thursday, Oct. 1, and continue with events throughout the weekend and into late-October.  REGISTER! As part of the Virtual 2020 Young Readers Festival of Books, the South Dakota Humanities Council has posted seven “Virtual School Visit” videos by authors and illustrators. These videos are FREE for teachers, librarians, and parents/guardians to use as they like, and they will remain available for viewing through at least October 31, unless otherwise noted. They include: Alison McGhee Bink & Gollie: Three for One: Creating the 2020 Young Readers One Book McGhee talks about how Bink & Gollie came to be and answers questions from South Dakota students – focused on 3rd grade Angelica Shirley Carpenter & Edwin Fotheringham (with Jennifer McIntyre)   Writing and Illustrating The Voice of Liberty  Carpenter (a...

During the month of July 2020, fifteen school librarians from around the state participated in a book study facilitated by the SD State Library. The book?  Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching Engaging Every Child by Pernille Ripp. Laura Kelly, the Children & Youth Services Coordinator at the SD State Library, enrolled in the course and she kindly wrote about her experience. ...from Laura Kelly I have worked at the South Dakota State Library (SDSL) for the past two years. I serve 110 public libraries in South Dakota which include combination school/public libraries.  I help librarians provide literacy programs for children, teens, and adults. One way I am able to serve others is by actively participating in continuing education as a learner. I started my career in education teaching reading as a Title I teacher in North Dakota and then I transferred into an elementary school librarian teaching position. I taught for a total of ten years and then transitioned into the p...

It's always a good time to use the State Library's 50+ free, vetted e-resources and databases for research, literacy, and inquiry.  For more efficient access for teachers and students, the State Library has categorized the K-12 databases into elementary , middle , and high . Librarians can also link specific databases to their websites, blogs, online newsletters, OPACs, etc. Visit Technical Help on our Resource Guides. WAYS TO ACCESS There are three options depending on your circumstance: QUICK: Instantly anywhere with the physical borders of South Dakota through nifty IP tracking technology called GeoIP. QUICK BUT DEVICE SPECIFIC: Instantly at school with registered school devices. If new devices have been purchased, it's likely SDSL will need the new IP range from your school. Contact Kim Bonen for that. HANDY WHEN TRAVELING OUT OF STATE: Each school has an SDSL ecard. Students, parents, and staff are able to use those login credentials to access most of the databases w...

Like a Bitmoji classroom, a Bitmoji library is a virtual replica of a real library. This article,  Educators Turn to Bitmoji to Build Community and Engagement , covered much of what you'd need to know before embarking on your own Bitmoji project. Click/tap the image below to view my project that reads more as a Bimoji wall than a Bitmoji library/classroom. That's the cool thing about this concept - it can be whatever you want because it's really just a fancy hyperdoc . Speaking from personal experience, this project was somewhat time-consuming . You will also need to have decent Google Docs skills to not get super frustrated. BUT.... it's a fun way to improve your digital literacy skills while also supporting your work and your patrons. A Bitmoji library/classroom can be a creative way to deliver information and resources to your patrons or lessons and concepts to your students. It's also a way to differentiate instruction and allow for deeper learning. Access  an e...