Palisades High School

Library Media Center

Annual End of Year

Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Purpose of Report:

Our tenth annual report has been compiled in order to educate readers on the state of the library media program

at Palisades High School located in Kintnersville, PA. Included is information about our library program and

the services that we provide to approximately 650 students and approximately 60 faculty members. We find it

very important to share what we do since many people do not fully understand the level of support that school

library media specialists offer to teachers, administrators, and students. The library media specialist often

co-teaches in order to integrate technology and research skills into lessons with the goal of making students as

academically successful as possible. In addition to that, the library media specialist often trains other educators

in using technology in the classroom. As you read this report, you will see the scope of the impact that our

school library program has upon our students and staff.

Library and Computer Lab Visits:

Many classes visited the library and computer lab this year. In February, we revamped our schedule to allow

our faculty to co-edit a Google Doc for both the library and lab schedules. This year, we had a total of 949

recorded visits to the computer lab (332 English, 302 social studies, and 315 other which includes health

class, guidance, world languages, etc.) We had a total of 573 recorded visits to the library (231 English, 200

social studies, and 142 other which also includes health class, guidance, world languages, etc.) In addition to

the classes we had in the library, we also had approximately 6 students per period on permanent pass and

approximately 30-40 additional visitors per period.

Our Collection:

Our collection has increased from 23,765 to 26,365 materials. This statistic reflects the addition of new

materials that we received, mainly in our fiction section to replace the damaged materials that we lost during

our roof leak in January of 2010. We also applied for and were awarded a $5,000 LSTA grant which

allowed us to purchase new social studies materials to support our new curriculum.

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231

200

142

English

Social Studies

Other (health, world language, guidance, etc.)

Computer Lab Visits by Department Library Visits by Department

332

302

315

English

Social Studies

Other (health, world language, guidance, etc.)

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Page 3 of 10

2359

8516

299 729

Circulation by Genre

nonfiction

fiction

biography

A-V

950010000

10500

11000

11500

12000

12500

13000

10857

12856

10897

11633 11903

TOTAL CIRCULATION: By the end of May, we achieved a

circulation of 11,903 materials with an

enrollment of 656 students. Over the

past five years enrollment has dwindled

(during 2007-2008, our enrollment was

739). The statistics provided do not

reflect the e-books accessed this year or

the use of the subscription databases.

In 2009-2010, our students accessed

our subscription resources more often

than our current students do. However,

I have worked to improve the quality of

up to date nonfiction print materials for

research. These circulation statistics

are highly impressive for a high school

of our size!

CIRCULATION BY GENRE:

Fiction was our most heavily used

section, with a total of 8,516

fiction materials circulated.

Students often use both electronic

and print resources to attain

factual information.

336

1064 1063

844

1343

1756

1394 14121498

1165

280

200400600800

100012001400160018002000

MONTHLY CIRCULATION: During January, we saw the highest

circulation numbers. In January we

switch semesters and many books

from first semester are returned while

new books for second semester are

signed out.

981

2067

866

151

number of searches

Advanced Placement Source SIRS Researcher

SweetSearch EBSCO eBooks

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Our Collection, continued:

Many students use our interlibrary loan services to obtain college level materials for research from Pennsylvania

colleges and public libraries. This year we requested 127 materials from other libraries throughout

Pennsylvania. Our total is significantly greater than average for a public school library. This statistic is

understandable, given limited access to public community libraries within district boundaries. We had 26

requests by others to borrow our materials.

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For senior project this year, we revamped some of the resources we directed seniors towards. In the past, we required that seniors build a Google Site to house their information. We pulled back to just showing them how Google Sites can work as a free and cloud based flash drive. We introduced seniors to using Diigo as a platform to capture information found during online research and save and organize that information for synthesis and analysis of the information into a research paper. We added instruction on using SweetSearch. SweetSearch is a database used to locate quality information for research (which I think ultimately reduced our subscription database statistics, but I feel that it is still worth sharing with the students since it is such a quality database). We provided a graphic organizer for interacting with articles from scholarly journals (peer reviewed) created by my student teacher and my student teacher also provided a screencast on finding statistics to support research. We created a screencast on capturing text from .pdf files and extracting them for Noodletool Notecards - I posted that video publicly on YouTube and we have 821 views so far! Overall, I think we really ramped up the program that we are offering to seniors and I hope, as a result, that they are even more prepared to succeed in post-secondary life. For next year’s seniors, I edited the senior project guide to make it more up to date. We also hope to make a requirement that seniors create an annotated bibliography next year in order to learn how to create a proper annotated bibliography.

Above is a chart which shows statistics collected from

our database usage.

SweetSearch is a free database which offers results that

are hand selected by academic professionals and is,

therefore, highly desirable for research.

SirsResearcher is our provider for magazines,

newspapers, and journals.

Advanced Placement Source is unique in that it offers

many peer reviewed resources from scholarly journals,

over half originating from international publishers.

EBSCO ebooks are nonfiction books in electronic format

that are found by searching our catalog.

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Our Collection, continued:.

NoodleTools is a database that we subscribe to that offers students both a citation and a note-card generator

which allows students to incorporate note-cards into their outline. This year, 1,360 bibliographies were created.

Our English department made NoodleTools our official English Department citation generator due to the

parenthetical citation generator, note-card feature, and outline feature that EasyBib does not offer. We are

looking forward to even more upgrades from NoodleTools!

Tinicum Civic Association has, yet again, graciously donated money to our library. We were able to update our

collection mid-year, and chose titles that students had been requesting. Our budget has been cut significantly

and this allowed us to order more books that the students wanted. We were VERY grateful for their donation

The Tinicum Civic Association raises monies through community based events with the purpose of supporting

local non-profit organizations that contribute to the general welfare or enhance the quality of life in our area.

Please consider helping the association by volunteering at or attending the upcoming Tinicum Arts Festival, July

14-15, 2012 in Tinicum Park or by visiting Stover Mill Art Gallery located on River Road in Erwinna.

Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections:

Erin Banas was inspired by Alex Bobsein’s training at the end of the 2010-2011 school-year when he shared a

lesson on Global Uprisings in which he asked students to gather information and populate a website with the

information, images, and video that they collected. Erin decided to create a similar project with her students

during their Progressive Era unit. For each class she taught (and each semester), she asked that I support the unit

by coming in to teach the basics of working within Google Sites (as I had done with Alex). Erin and I also came

up with suggestions for students to help them break up long passages of text on the site which are posted here

under the heading Guidelines for Student Curation. Here is Erin’s site.

In the fall, Aimee Alfredo and I collaborated on a nutrition unit. I started by sharing a bibliography of resources

on Diigo for Aimee and her students to access. As the class researched nutrition, they also read the book Fast

Food Nation to support the unit. Aimee located an article related to the novel and the class (as a group using the

Smart Board) used Diigo to mark up passages within the article with highlighting and comments. I came in to

support their experience with Diigo markups. Since then, Aimee has met with me to brainstorm ideas which we

enjoy bouncing off of each other for her English class since we both love English curriculum and lesson

design. In addition to the nutrition unit, I helped co-instruct a booktalking lesson.

For each semester we continued the 9th grade career research project. During this project students select a

career that they may want to obtain and they research the specifics (amount of education needed, branches

within the field, etc.) along with researching a current issue that relates to the field in which they are

studying. Years ago, I created a Glog (an interactive poster with links to resources) which houses links to each

of the electronic resources they may find useful during the project. I showed each class how to access the Glog

and use the resources within. I also purchased many new career books in order to provide students with a wider

variety of career materials.

Page 5 of 10

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Page 6 of 10

Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections, cont.:

This year I worked with Mandy Laubach consistently on using technology based writing strategies. We

worked within her Romeo & Juliet, Night, and To Kill a Mockingbird units. During each, we directed students

towards non-fiction extensions to the novel in order to create connections from literature to the world we live

in.

For Romeo & Juliet, the students interacted with an article which gave detail about a dramatic production of the

play in Tehran, Iran. The article informed readers that, under new leadership, the actors were allowed to

display public affection through a brush of the cheek. This was a new practice in Iranian arts and created

societal controversy. The students read the article and responded to the content using Google Docs color coded

highlighting to decode information within the article. The students also used the commenting features to

connect personally with the content they were reading. After responding personally, they discussed their

thoughts in a group setting and co-wrote a response to post to the classroom blog. The students in second

semester were instructed to respond to each other’s blog posts using an etiquette guide for blog

discussion. The lesson was incredibly valuable in allowing students to get a glimpse of the cultural differences

in our world and helped them to understand that belief-based culture may strongly impact everyday life. The

technological advantage of this lesson was that it introduced the students to Google Docs highlighting and

commenting features, which they will hopefully use in other settings.

Here is the blog post about our first semester experience (we worked out the bugs for second semester)

Here is the class blog with responses to the article.

For Night, the students used online research strategies to learn about modern genocide. To research, the

students were directed towards SweetSearch and our subscription search engines which provide articles from

journals, magazines, and newspapers. Once students located an article, the group used Google Docs chat and

comment features to allow them to share their thoughts on the content. The groups created a group response by

co-editing a Google Doc (which was not published in the public blog setting. ) This lesson opened the students’

eyes to the fact that genocide still occurs in contemporary societies. The technological advantage of the lesson

was to provide students with the collaborative features Google Docs offers.

Here is the blog post about this lesson.

While studying To Kill a Mockingbird, the students were assigned groups that would research various

important events of the Civil Rights Era (Scottsboro Boys, Little Rock Nine, Brown v. Board of Education,

etc.) Prior to research, the students created a Diigo account in order to use the web highlighting, sticky note,

and comment features to collect supporting detail for their research. The difference between Google Docs and

Diigo features are that Diigo allows users to use the tools immediately in the online setting without having to

copy and paste the information into a Google Doc. The students were instructed to share the content that they

pulled into their personal library with their group using the share feature on the Diigo platform (adding the

content to their group members’ libraries). Through this assignment, all but one student had their first

experience with Diigo. We had hoped they would enjoy the program and see the advantage of having the

toolbar add-on and actively highlighting the web and preserving content in a Diigo library. On that day, we

suffered technical difficulty that unfortunately did not allow the students the full picture of the assets of the

process but did allow them to grasp the concept and purpose of Diigo. Since they are freshmen, I will work to

make sure they get continued experience with the program during their sophomore year.

*I hope to offer a workshop during the summer to other teachers on integrating reading strategies with online

tools.

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections, cont.:

Maryanne Momorella continued to ask her students in Multimedia Communications to podcast and screencast. I

supported the students by showing them how to create both podcasts and screencasts. Many students did not

know how to create a podcast or screencast prior to the unit, so it was fun showing them how easy it is!

The 2011-2012 school-year was the first time our school ever provided our own cyber program. As a librarian, I

was searching for a way to provide resources to students that I may never interact with face to face. I wanted to

support both teachers and students. The first thing that I did was to create a digital site where students and

teachers could go to for access to our resources. Next, I went to the cyber teachers to teach them how to use

screencasting in order to communicate with students for assessment (or general communication)

purposes. During second semester, I attended the cyber student orientation and provided bookmarks which were

filled with information on the resources we were able to provide to the students. I was also added as a Teaching

Assistant in Kevin Ronalds’ online Cultural Diversity class and I ensured that all of the students taking the

online course received the same information that we were providing to students here in the face to face

setting. Next year, the library will house a new Cyber Center where cyber students will be able to come for

assistance. I am excited that the library is the physical location for this center so that we can interact with the

students and provide resources to assist their learning.

We added to our summer reading program by creating a note-taking document for students who read early in the

summer and need a refresher before the assessment; our committee decided that the science reading will now be

formally assessed (along with English and social studies required summer reading); and I created a summer

reading Google Site that students are accessing to help them decide which title they prefer to choose.

In August, I was invited to attend the PSLA Leadership Committee Meeting. We met in State College and

separated into groups to discuss growth for our profession. I was part of the Media and Selection Review

Committee for this event. Later, I served by writing reviews for new materials and sharing them at our state

conference.

In August, I was trained (to serve as a trainer) in Digital Collection Development by the State of PA Dept. of

Library Services. In October, Mary Schwander and I facilitated and presented a face to face training at Bucks

County Intermediate Unit. On November 15, Mary and I offered a webinar on Digital Collection Development

to 20 live participants and 56 viewers of the archived webinar. This webinar was helpful in that it allowed

people in Pennsylvania to receive training if there was not a local workshop being offered or they could not

make it to a local workshop. Archive viewers were able to play the recording and pause it to perform the task

we were modeling and then un-pause to move on throughout the session. On March 17, Mary and I joined Joyce

Valenza for another face to face training session held at Springfield Township High School. On April 13, at our

annual state library conference, we showcased how we had each used the concepts learned. During each session

that I trained, I learned more about digital curation and have been able to put those concepts into action for

trainings and through our summer reading Google Site.

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Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections, cont.:

School libraries are very important resources for both students and staff. However, there are many school

libraries that are no longer being staffed with professionals and we must speak loud about the impact that school

libraries actually make in relation to student achievement. There is currently a huge study involving school

libraries in Pennsylvania. I was asked to serve on the Professional Judgment Panel to discuss the direction of the

study and travelled to the Harrisburg area on January 10, 2012 to meet with others to learn new ideas and share

my own. On April 26, our school participated in a photo-shoot that will allow images of active library programs

to be embedded into the study.

After the honor of receiving the 2011 Outstanding Individual School Library Informational Center awarded by

Pennsylvania School Librarian’s Association, I was asked to assist the PSLA Awards Committee on a visit to

Upper Merion School District. We assessed the programs of five schools against rubrics. This was beneficial as

I was able to learn about the good things they were implementing (mainly with literacy).

In March, I was able to attend the Beyond the Textbook Forum hosted by Discovery Education. I was present for

a think tank on how to create the very best online textbook for students (which Discovery Ed is looking to

do). Dr. Joyce Valenza injured herself and needed a ride which allowed me to attend! I was able to learn so

much from the 11 or so international education experts and bloggers on this day. It was energizing!!!!

It is important for a librarian to build a Personal Learning Community. I have done so this year via twitter, a k12

google applications group, a classroom 2.0 ning, along with reading educational blogs regularly.

I was involved in a few presentations!

On March 17, 2012, I co-presented a screencasting webinar called Using Screencasting in

Education “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be priceless!” to share

educational uses of screencasting with other educators. We had 16 live participants and 55 people viewed the archived

presentation. We were asked to present it at TL cafe in October, 2012. The presentation was also used by Classroom

2.0 for another webinar on screencasting on March 17, 2012. I hope to present this session during the summer for

training we will hold within our school district. Click here to view the recording (via Elluminate) from Tuesday,

March 6, 2012.

I presented PA Librarians Unite: A Digital Guide For The 21st-Century Librarian, and facilitated a screencast users

group meet at our Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) annual conference.

Also, at our annual PSLA conference, I helped present the Top 40 Young Adult books to suggest to other librarians to

purchase. This year, as part of the PSLA Media Selection and Review Committee, I submitted reviews of materials to

recommend to other librarians for purchase for our “Top 40 Books” presentation at our state school library

conference. Our library received numerous free books provided to us through the Top 40 committee.

My professional growth objective this year was to enhance Global Collaborations within our school. In addition to

sharing multiple resources for Global opportunities, I presented an in-service within our district on making these

connections and collaborations. I also presented this topic as a speaker to a class of library students at Kutztown

University on March 21 at 6 pm via Skype

Page 8 of 10

Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections, cont.:

I wrote an article for Learning and Media, our PSLA publication, that was published in August.

My Information Literacy/Curriculum Connections goals for next year will most likely be to work closely with

our cyber center and students in order to provide support to allow our new program to be a success along with

continuing in the classroom to assist both students and teachers as much as possible.

Community Connections:

Adult volunteers: Our district offers a tax rebate to senior citizens who volunteer for a certain number of hours.

This year we were thrilled to have the services of Luther Kemmerer . Luther came in to shelve books and help in

any other way that we needed him. When Luther came in on Wednesday mornings, we knew that he was ready

to be given a full morning of duties. Luther was not only very willing, but he was extremely capable of quality

work and is a wonderful and inspiring man to speak with. We hope Luther returns to our Library during the 2012

-2013 school year!

We hosted the elementary Reading Olympics competition this year. We had approximately 1,000 people in our

building which brings many elements of coordination together. It was a challenge, but the payoff in seeing the

joy in the faces of the students who participate in an event that celebrates reading and watching the faces of the

proud parents is certainly priceless!

Library Staff:

I, Karen Hornberger, am the Library Media Specialist. I facilitate library and school events and programs

wherever possible. I serve on the following committees: Career Portfolio Committee, Department Chair

Committee, Reading Olympics Executive Committee, Bucks County Intermediate Unit Technology Staff

Developers, PSLA Media and Selection Review Committee, District Strategic Planning’s Community

Engagement Sub-committee . I am the Chairperson of the Professional Development and the Summer

Reading Committees. I co-advise Reading Olympics and Scholars’ Bowl.

Patricia Stangil was our computer lab assistant until January. We were so grateful to have Patricia as part of

our library “family” and will miss her a lot! We had a fun retirement party for her to honor all of the hard

work she did while she was here.

Corine Rillera was hired to fill Patricia’s shoes in the lab and is doing a very nice job!

While not officially library staff, I have had the honor of having Kim Lindley in the library to serve as an

assistant. Kim has been very helpful in cleaning up the library and our cataloguing!!!! She will be missed

next year, especially for her fun and caring personality!

Page 9 of 10

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist

Library Staff, cont.:

From January 24 through March 9, I hosted a student teacher from Kutztown University named Victoria

Stocker. I asked Victoria to review some lessons that I traditionally teach and put her own spin on

them. These lessons were: How to use Noodletools to cite resources and extract information into electronic

note-cards and pull them into the proper location on their outline (for this lesson I asked Victoria to create a

supplemental blog post); How to access and interact successfully with Scholarly Journal (Peer Reviewed)

Resources (for this lesson I asked Victoria to create a graphic organizer which visual learners could opt to

use); and Searching for Statistics to enhance your research (for this lesson I asked Victoria to create a

screencast that we could post on our website for students to access remotely as needed). In addition to my

traditionally taught lessons, I asked Victoria to create a lesson on using SweetSearch as a database for

research in which she provided a formal lesson, blog post, blackboard post, and twitter share. Victoria also

supported teachers and students with support on using Google Docs and Glogster. Outside of formal

teaching, Victoria created pathfinders for teachers, ultimately helping both students and teacher access a

variety of useful resources. Cyber students received bookmarks which Victoria designed highlighting library

resources. Victoria planned and provided book talks to classes upon request. Beautiful and interesting

displays began to fill our library as Victoria spent her time with us. In addition to that, our shelves were kept

in excellent order and marked with additional genre stickers. We wish Victoria the best in her future

endeavors!

Thank you for taking the time to read our Annual End of Year Report!

Have a wonderful and relaxing summer!

Page 10 of 10

Palisades High School Library Media Center

Annual End of Year Report

June, 2012

Compiled and Composed by

Karen Hornberger, Library Media Specialist