Leading virtual museum field trips using Zoom

Amanda Jones writes: “I came across the article ‘Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch’ on Facebook and I was struck with an idea. What if I shared these field trips online for my students? I visited the websites of all 12 museums listed in the article and was impressed, but wondered how some of my students would navigate these sites, as some of them were a little difficult to traverse. I began to wonder if there was a platform I could use to navigate these sites for my students while they followed along. I reached out to my PLN on Twitter, and the consensus seemed to be that the best way to lead a virtual trip would be using Zoom.”

Knowledge Quest blog, Mar. 30

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Brian O’Hare writes: “All cultures have hero myths—we mortals feel elevated by mere proximity to magic—but the American hero myth is unique, as if Hollywood remade the Homeric ideal, laced it with Wall Street capitalism and Biblical certainty, making sure it played to the cheap seats as well.” He recommends nine books that demythologize this idea and examine its impact, particularly on children.

Electric Literature, November 8
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Andrew Albanese writes: “In a statement this week, the Michigan Library Association defended a local library that has been defunded by voters over the library’s refusal to pull several LGBTQ-themed books from library shelves. Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, Michigan, lost its 10-year levy renewal vote after a group of citizens organized a ‘no’ campaign in the wake of the library’s refusal to censor books, a move that will almost certainly force the library to close its doors in the coming year. ‘A local tragedy with national implications, the Patmos Library is the only library in the country that has essentially been defunded by the vote of its citizens due to its refusal to comply with censorship,’ reads a November 14 statement from the Michigan Library Association.”

Publishers Weekly, Nov. 15; Michigan Library Association, Nov. 14
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“The work libraries do in helping people facing housing insecurity goes far beyond providing an open, welcoming space. Increasingly, people are turning to libraries for direction in times of crisis. When someone is overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to go to find help, they often start at their community library. As the scope of services people seek from libraries continues to expand, so does the need for more resources to support libraries and library staff. This collection of resources can help support your work as you support your community.”

WebJunction, November 10
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Lettie Y. Conrad writes: “Library discovery services—web-scale search engines configured for institutional library holdings—first came onto the scholarly communications scene in the mid-2000s. Just as the indexing and relevancy engines found under the hood of commercial search engines are not easily understood, our industry quickly found that what goes into library discovery services is equally mysterious. Enter NISO, our sector’s best bet for tackling thorny topics like this. Initiated in 2011, NISO’s Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) offers standard terms of engagement for the creation and implementation of pre-indexed discovery tools for academic libraries.

The Scholarly Kitchen, November 10
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Ernesto Van der Sar writes: “Late last week, Z-Library lost control over its main domain names. All signs suggest that the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI are behind the action, a theory supported by an updated seizure banner. While Z-Library remains operational through the Tor network, new details show that more than a hundred domains were affected by the action. With millions of regular visitors, Z-Library is one of the largest repositories of pirated books on the Internet. The site has nearly 12 million copies of books in its digital archive, which is shared with the world for free.”

Torrent Freak, November 7
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Bill Miston writes: “Michael Miecielica, 38, of West Bend, Wisconsin, faces two felonies and 10 misdemeanors, accused of showing up at West Bend Community Memorial Library during the midterm elections and demanding that poll workers ‘stop the voting.’ Prosecutors say Miecielica was out on bail at the time, accused of placing threatening flyers around West Bend. Prosecutors say he told investigators, ‘I did it here because I didn’t want to disturb the children. I did it so she would call the cops because I am a bad person and should go to jail.’ ” The library was locked down for 30 minutes; nobody was injured.

FOX6 News Milwaukee, November 10, 9, 8
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Chelsey Roos writes: “Making your programs more inclusive of autistic families (and families with other sensory needs or disabilities) doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money. There are small, simple changes that you can make in an hour or less today that will help autistic families feel welcome and supported at your library programs (not just storytime). Here are four ways to get started. Once you try them, you might find that these changes support not just autistic families, but many other kinds of families.”

ALSC Blog, November 10

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