I have a pretty long step by step hand out for Overdrive. Overdrive is our district eBook and eAudio book database. We have the School Download library plus we have added some titles to our system in addition to the base collection as well. The handout can be downloaded from: http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/gcsd/depts/ets/its/docs/overdrivetraining.pdf - for copyright reasons I am not going to use screen captures of the program in this blog - but you can see screen captures in the handout as you participate in training. You can access our Overdrive library at http://greenville.lib.overdrive.com - Log in by finding your school and using your network username and password. OR - K-2 students have a library card number and an alternate login screen.
I LOVE audio books - we've been using these digitial audiobooks for awesome projects and reading reinforcements. There are several schools doing "Exercise Your Mind" type programs where students/teachers load the books onto MP3 players and the students listen to them while walking on the tracks for PE minutes (or inside in yucky weather). Then students can come inside for discussion groups and lessons on what they have read. The books have been listened to in small groups for literature circles and shared over teacher Promethean boards for supplements to class novel sets. They are wonderful!! Read the research from Janet Allen on "Plugged into Reading" and other works about how audiobooks can improve comprehension and fluency!!
The eBooks are incredible in the classroom. It is the natural progression from holding books up to share with the class, to using a document camera, to having an full screen image to interact with in the classroom or on an individual computer. POWERFUL! Most of you know one of my big professional interests is teaching non-fiction reading strategies to students. To be able to show the titles on the screen and guide students through the access strategies is incredible and to be able to have the students interact and post questions in Adobe Reader is the best!!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Destiny Quest Staff Training - Making a Public List (For Teachers or LMS)
One of the really nice features of Destiny Quest is being able to make a public list to share with parents or students. You can make a Top 10 pick for a grade level - recommendations for a poetry projects, or give supplemental titles for a unit of study. This will guide you through making a public list.
To add titles to the list - it is no different than creating a private list - you just have to set it up first. You are going to log in, then click on the button that says, "Exit Destiny Quest" in the upper right hand corner.
You'll be taken to the old interface and you will want to click on "Resource Lists" in the left hand column on the Catalog tab (you'll automatically be on this tab when you exit Destiny Quest). MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOGGED IN or you will not be able to make a public list. 
Next, you will want to click on the "Add List". On the next screen, you want to fill in all of the information and click the check box if you want to make the list public. That means it will be seen by everyone who looks at the catalog for your school, including guests, so this would be available for parents or students at home as well if they have computer access. Once you've filled out the information, click "Save." Then you can get back into Destiny Quest and once you've added titles to your list, it will be available in the Resource Lists window. Have fun and try sharing your favorites with your students and community!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Destiny Quest Staff Training Part Two
Continuing with Destiny Quest...
When you are logged onto Destiny Quest you have an active list on the right hand side. (it will show if you aren't logged in, but this is the "Guest" list) You can drag and drop search items into your list, or add them from the details screen on the title.
If you want to drag and drop, hover over the image of the title, click and drag the title over to the "My List" box. When you are over the box, release and drop the title. You'll get an animation of the title disappearing into your list.
If you are looking at the title details, you have a button in the upper right under the title status that will let you add the title to your list as well.
If the item is already in your list, you'll see a smiley face and it will say "In your list."
Once you have a list ready, it can be accessed from anywhere with internet access - all you have to do is log in to Destiny! Just click on the link "Titles" in the My List box and it will pull up your list.
In the options screen, you can select the type of bibliography you want it to print, or you can select MLA format. Then click Print Preview to see the results and print if you need to.
1. Creating a personal list:
When you are logged onto Destiny Quest you have an active list on the right hand side. (it will show if you aren't logged in, but this is the "Guest" list) You can drag and drop search items into your list, or add them from the details screen on the title. If you want to drag and drop, hover over the image of the title, click and drag the title over to the "My List" box. When you are over the box, release and drop the title. You'll get an animation of the title disappearing into your list.
If you are looking at the title details, you have a button in the upper right under the title status that will let you add the title to your list as well. 
If the item is already in your list, you'll see a smiley face and it will say "In your list."
Once you have a list ready, it can be accessed from anywhere with internet access - all you have to do is log in to Destiny! Just click on the link "Titles" in the My List box and it will pull up your list.
You can also print the list, and one of the nice print options lets you print a bibliography in MLA format! Great for research papers and projects to help reinforce format! From the list screen, click on Print Options.
In the options screen, you can select the type of bibliography you want it to print, or you can select MLA format. Then click Print Preview to see the results and print if you need to. Destiny Quest Staff Training
This section was specifically made for Duncan Chapel ES staff, but other Greenville County students and staff, feel free to jump right in!
In the window that comes up, enter your last name and library barcode number. If you don't have your number, ask your media specialist. When you have entered this information, click "Next."
In the final window, enter your custom username and password. For the sake of simplicity, make it the same as your network username and password. Once you have filled in all of the information, click "Save." This will save your information and autmatically log you in to the system. You should see "Hello" with your name in the upper right hand corner now.
As you type, you will see samples of recent searches at your location. This can be helpful if you or your student aren't quite sure how somthing is spelled. :)
The search results returned will be very general. To narrow your search, you'll use the orange "Narrow Your Search Box" on the left hand side of the screen.
To pull up these narrow menus, you'll need to "hover" over the search. This means move your cursor over the word, but don't click the mouse.
The menu will appear to the right of the word and you can select any of the available topics to narrow your search. For instance, in this case I tried narrowing by author. In the menu that appears I see all of the authors that have books in my original search for dogs. I can click on any authors names to see what books that author has about dogs.
Now look at the top light blue search history bar - I can see my orginal search for dogs and after I narrowed by author, I can see my author in the search as well. I can clear terms out of my search by using the X button to delete it and go back to my earlier search results. If I click the X next to dogs I can start my search over.
Now, lets take a look at the search results! One of the great new features is how easy it is for students to see if a book is checked in or if it is out when they are searching. In the upper right hand corner there is a little green "IN" if it is checked in, and if it is checked out they will see a little red "OUT."
You can use the same "hover" technique to scroll over the title and see the Quick Details on the book including the Call Number, Author, number of pages, Lexile and Reading Counts info and the start of a summary for the book. You can click on the cover or "More Info" in the Quick Details to see more.
From this screen you can view the full information on the title. There's the summary, call number, Quiz Info, Awards information and Reviews as well as the status in the upper right hand corner.
One fun feature to access from here is the auto-recommended titles based on author and subject matches. This is a nice, easy - "if you like this, try"
Another great feature to access from this screen that reinforces shelf order and organization is the Shelf Browse button. This brings up a Visual Shelf Browse so you can see what is immediately around the title on the shelf. You can use the slide bar on the bottom to continue browsing to the right or left of your title, and you can click on any of the titles to bring up more information on it.
Intro to Destiny Quest: Part One
Destiny Quest is the cool new interface to our online catalog system. The new interface has had a complete facelift and is much more user friendly to today's tech student. It's search features are closer to many of the major search engines online and it works nicely for a cross-training in both library searching and organization and online searching and information mining. PLUS - there are several fun web 2.0/interactive features available to teachers and students like book ratings and reviews, recommending books to other users, recommending books for purchase, and creating custom search lists.
1. Creating a Username and Password:
First, to access all of these interactive features you need a username and password to log in to Destiny Quest as you.
There is a link off of the school's website to the catalog, or you can open Internet Explorer and type "mediacenter" in the address bar. This brings up the list of schools for the district and you just need to pick your school. Destiny Quest will open - in the upper right hand corner, you'll need to click the link that says "Create Account."
In the window that comes up, enter your last name and library barcode number. If you don't have your number, ask your media specialist. When you have entered this information, click "Next."
In the next window, you'll need to enter your birthdate. Select it from the pull down menus, then click "Next."
In the final window, enter your custom username and password. For the sake of simplicity, make it the same as your network username and password. Once you have filled in all of the information, click "Save." This will save your information and autmatically log you in to the system. You should see "Hello" with your name in the upper right hand corner now.2. Search features
To search in Destiny Quest, you just enter your search term in the box at the top/middle of the screen and press enter or click "GO."
As you type, you will see samples of recent searches at your location. This can be helpful if you or your student aren't quite sure how somthing is spelled. :)
The search results returned will be very general. To narrow your search, you'll use the orange "Narrow Your Search Box" on the left hand side of the screen.To pull up these narrow menus, you'll need to "hover" over the search. This means move your cursor over the word, but don't click the mouse.
The menu will appear to the right of the word and you can select any of the available topics to narrow your search. For instance, in this case I tried narrowing by author. In the menu that appears I see all of the authors that have books in my original search for dogs. I can click on any authors names to see what books that author has about dogs.
Now look at the top light blue search history bar - I can see my orginal search for dogs and after I narrowed by author, I can see my author in the search as well. I can clear terms out of my search by using the X button to delete it and go back to my earlier search results. If I click the X next to dogs I can start my search over.You can use this same narrow feature to narrow the search by Lexile, Reading Counts level or points, subject, genre, extent (if you want a book about dogs that is over or under a certain length), by year (if you want a new book - especially non fiction), by series and even by rating! For schools with foreign language collections, you can even search by language.
Let's look at the Lexile and Reading Counts narrow features. You can do a search just for Reading Counts or Lexile, but it is better to get students in the habit of realizing that they should look for a topic or author of interest, then try to narrow by the Lexile. Students are more likely to read what they are interested in and there are lots of books in the library with Lexile levels in the records.
Let's go back and look at the dogs search. If you hover over Lexile, you'll see the narrow box come up. Instead of a list, you'll see a slide bar to select the Lexile range you need. Move the bar on the right and left to select the range, then click "Apply." In this picture, we have dog books that are between a 400 and 500 Lexile range.
Let's go back and look at the dogs search. If you hover over Lexile, you'll see the narrow box come up. Instead of a list, you'll see a slide bar to select the Lexile range you need. Move the bar on the right and left to select the range, then click "Apply." In this picture, we have dog books that are between a 400 and 500 Lexile range.
You can do the same thing with a Reading Counts search, but you can set the Reading Level and the Points Level in this type of search.
Now, lets take a look at the search results! One of the great new features is how easy it is for students to see if a book is checked in or if it is out when they are searching. In the upper right hand corner there is a little green "IN" if it is checked in, and if it is checked out they will see a little red "OUT."
You can use the same "hover" technique to scroll over the title and see the Quick Details on the book including the Call Number, Author, number of pages, Lexile and Reading Counts info and the start of a summary for the book. You can click on the cover or "More Info" in the Quick Details to see more.
From this screen you can view the full information on the title. There's the summary, call number, Quiz Info, Awards information and Reviews as well as the status in the upper right hand corner. One fun feature to access from here is the auto-recommended titles based on author and subject matches. This is a nice, easy - "if you like this, try"
Another great feature to access from this screen that reinforces shelf order and organization is the Shelf Browse button. This brings up a Visual Shelf Browse so you can see what is immediately around the title on the shelf. You can use the slide bar on the bottom to continue browsing to the right or left of your title, and you can click on any of the titles to bring up more information on it.
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