Thing 22: What Did I Learn Today?

Today I learned that vocabulary makes a difference. My librarian friend Ron asked me if the area high schools used the ELM databases. Recently he had a conversation with a friend from Minitex who thought schools weren't using them. Here's the thing . . . we are. We are using the state provided databases like you wouldn't believe. My neighboring high school media colleagues and I make have links to all of them on our school library web pages. Here's the deal. We don't use the ELM interface, rather we link directly to the databases themselves.

I explained to Ron that the ELM welcome is very user friendly and has a public library feel about it. In my school, as in most of the classic lake schools, over 85% of our students are college bound. We teach the students how to access the databases by their names and talk about when and why you would use each type. College libraries are set up the same way. In that regard we are intentionally training our students for college library use. I showed Ron a couple examples of school library web pages. He saw the common theme and remarked that they were set up much like his college library web page.

So, it all comes down to vocabulary. We are using the same things, but just calling them by different names.

(Mike, I think is the post where I am to pledge allegiance to things library and web 2.0-ish. I'm uncertain about a formal pledge, but I will continue to keep my eyes open, keep reading professional materials including the feeds at bloglines and even try new things once in a while. I can't promise though, that my Luddite skepticism, better known as practicality, will take a complete leave of absence.)