Image: Flickr

I’ve mentioned Bloglines before as a great one-stop-shopping approach to reading blogs.  Blog content is delivered automatically to your Bloglines account, making it easy to keep track of many people’s thinking about our profession (as well as a myriad of other topics).

Because bloggers can share content with readers as soon as they click “Publish,” new trends can be shared immediately.  No waiting for an editor to rewrite (for better or for worse), for the printer to generate paper copies, or for the mail service to deliver it. 

Many of us in our department have experimented with being bloggers or empowering our colleagues and students to blog as part of their teaching and learning.  Now, we’re turning our attention to how we can use blogs as professional development as our state education funds continue to shrink in buying power.

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Which blogs are must-reads for you?

Image: Amazon

The blogosphere is buzzing about Amazon’s new Kindle device, a new kind of WiFi electronic book-reader.  Instead of earlier eBook devices, its screen depicts reading material that looks like the printed page.  Unlike Palm devices, there is no need to sync with a host computer.  New material can be purchased and downloaded in under a minute, and many books cost around $10.  The site claims that it is lighter in weight than many books.

To quote Amazon’s Kindle information page, here are some of the features:

• Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
• Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
• More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
• New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
• Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
• Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
• Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times.
• More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post.
• Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
• Holds over 200 titles.
• Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
• Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
• No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
• Includes free wireless access to the planet’s most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
• Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

It will be interesting to see if this $299 device takes off or goes the way of the Segway (cool idea, but not implemented on a large scale).  Oh, and if you happen to read this and work for Amazon, I bet I’m not the only librarian who’d like a chance to take this device for a spin.

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Has anyone seen this device? Anybody know if Kindle will be on display at Midwinter?

What makes a book a book? Does this device “count”?

A colleague who is a school library media specialist in a high school, is working with the English department to try to find audio books (mp3 files, cassettes, or CDs) that correlate with a wide variety of high school reading materials.   We found that Libravox has a set of links to audio books that can be downloaded for free, as well as those that require a subscription.  Check out the resources here.  There are lots of public domain classics (Shakespeare, Dickens, etc.) that various groups have created, often for free. 

Audio texts can do so much to help all readers, especially those who are reluctant, struggling, or ELL.  And when the materials are free, why not give it a try?

I use Audible.com and iPod Shuffles for audio books for upper elementary students in my building, and lately I’ve been deluged with requests for primary-level audio as well. 

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What kinds of audio books do you provide in your library?