Club Displays in the Library

There is always so much going on that sometimes we miss some things in the library.  The awesome thing about students at ISB is that, like magic, when something important is happening, they let us know.  If you were like me, Hispanic History Month was something that unfortunately slipped by me.  To their credit, the Latin Language Club came to the rescue and offered to pull some books by Hispanic authors.  They also put together some posters and reading lists.  Now we have a wonderful display in the front of our library to show our support.  

We love this kind of thing in the library as we feel like this falls in line with one of our missions, which is to ensure that everyone has a place in the library.  Students can find these and many other authors.  Additionally, we just took in some books that are being added to our Mother Tongue collection that is popular fiction written in Norwegian (Norsk).  

Stop and see if we have something that interests you. If not let us know and we will see what we can do to meet that need. 

Hispanic Month Collection

  Ms. Kehe’s Recommendation

Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (YA Fantasy)

17-year-old Zelie, her brother, Inan, and Amari, daughter of the cruel King Saran, flee their home with a sacred scroll in search of the last sacred item that can restore magic to Orisha.   The Maji, born with silver-white hair and whose magical powers manifest when they reach adulthood, were brutally slaughtered by King Saran years ago. The era of magic ended with their slaughter. The Maji children (Diviners) with their distinctive white hair are marginalized and live on the edge of society today. An intriguing world, filled with powerful magic, and brutal violence, has been created by the author. It’s impossible not to sympathize with the three fugitives, hunted down by Amari’s brother, Prince Inan, who believes bringing magic back is too risky and will bring down the Kingdom. The story is a fantasy, but also it serves as a commentary on race, power, and injustice.

  Bell’s Recommendation

Between Two Kingdoms – By Suleika Jaouad

Suleika is a woman with a mission.  Survive.  In this book, she retells her struggle to overcome cancer as a 20-something. Her book is nearly two books, one of the challenges she faced followed by the story of how she worked to regain her life.  She talks about things like family, significant others, friends, and acquaintances shemeets on her journey.   She is a writer, and as such, she blogged about the process she went through in a critically acclaimed New York Times feature titled: Life, Interrupted.  This book shouldn’t scare people away as it is her facing a reality that we will all likely come in contact with whether it is us or someone we love. There is much to be learned from Suleika’s story.  That said, it is targeted at Adult readers. Definitely not for the faint of heart but one that will make you think about loved ones and those dealing with medical struggles. 

  Tech Tool

One of my favorite tech guys out there is Eric Curts, who runs a blog called: ControlAltAchieve.com.  I like his work because he is so thorough in his explanations, and he provides instructions that everyone can handle on the most important tech tools.  Here is his latest on something we can all use; SPREADSHEETS.

His Resources:

Thanks @ericcurts  

  Digital Citizenship Corner

Managing our time online is tough for all of us.  However, we all have things we need to get done and these things are often online.  So how do we keep our focus and yet not spend so much time staring at a screen?  Enter a tool called Pomofocus.  It applies the Pomodoro Technique championed by Francesco Cirillo.  Basically, it is a method of setting timers to ensure that you stop and start work as he says, ‘Work smarter, not harder’.  It is easy to implement and Pomofocus is as simple as opening the site, setting the timer, and starting it.  It dings when the time is up and you should then take a break.  A pretty simple solution to a major problem.