Library Media Center Apps-

The Lorena ISD Library Media Centers have apps that allow patrons to manage their library media center accounts, recheck books, download and read ebooks, and download and listen to audiobooks.

• Destiny Quest App - This app is available for iOS, Android & Kindle Fire users and allows patrons to search the library media center catalog, manage their account, recheck books, and submit book reviews.Download and configuration info can be found here.

• Follett Brytewave K12 App - This app is available for iOS, Android, Nook HD, and (coming soon) Kindle Fire. In the app you can view, check out, and download our digital collection of ebooks and audiobooks. Students use the same username and password that they do for logging in to district computers.

• HS URL Code: wbb09648

All apps are free!

PowerSchool App

In case you didn't know - there is a PowerSchool app available for iOS devices.  PowerSchool for Students allows you to check your grades, attendance, assignments and more on the go.  The app is free and available in the App Store.  The app is created by Pearson School Systems (the maker of PowerSchool), so the app is fully functional.

At this time there is not an app for Android devices (not a pleasant thing for this Android user), but hopefully they'll jump on the bandwagon soon.

Checkout Audiobooks!

We've recently added some new downloadable audiobooks to our collection thanks to a program called "Catalist Digital."  For the next month, I invite you to take this new program out for a spin.  Visit CatalistDigital.com and use the username: lorenahs (replace the "hs" with "ms" "es" or "ps" for other campus collections) and the password: leopards to access these audiobooks.

You can listen to the book online, but you'll also find that you can download these audiobooks to your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, or your Android phone or tablet.  The free app is available in the App Store and GooglePlay.  This is a great way to listen to your books on the go, and a major help to students who are struggling with understanding difficult texts. 

If you decide you like the program, we'll be happy to make you a free student account.  You can request one by filling out the Contact form on the blog or by speaking with me or any of the media assistants.  (Be sure to include the name of your English or Reading teacher if you use the contact form.)

Diigo - Your Friend for Online Research

I'm not sure who came up with the idea of "Favorites" - probably Microsoft (if not, I'm sure they took credit for it) - but they have been a staple since web browsing really got started.  You go to the same websites a lot; you mark them as favorites.  That way, you don't have to remember the address or go through the great big Google search that led you there in the first place.

Favorites are great.  You can even keep them in folders for organizing, but the Web 2.0 revolution brought about some other challenges.  Favorites needed to be accessed across multiple devices.  It's not enough to be able to get to your favorites from your desktop.  Why can't you have the same list on your tablet, and your laptop, and your other laptop?  Some awesome innovators came up with a way to make that possible - and they coined the term "Social Bookmarking."  

With social bookmarking (through sites like Delicious), people could access their favorite bookmarks from anywhere, and they could even share them with friends.  The people at Diigo, however, have taken social bookmarking to a whole new level.  Imagine a simple toolbar that you can install on all your devices which allows you to not only bookmark, but annotate and highlight information from any website.  The best part - the next time you open that same page, the annotations are saved (on any of your devices).  This means you can take notes on THIS article at your computer at home, and then pull up the article and continue annotating at school.  

Imagine for a moment what this could do for your research paper/project organization.  Take a minute to watch this video to get a great visual of Diigo in action. 

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school!  2012-2013 is sure to be a great year.  Please let us know if you have any needs or requests from the media center.  We're always happy to get books and resources based on teacher and student recommendations.  You can make a request by filling out the Questions/Comments form on the website or by talking to Mr. B or Mrs. Webb in person.

We have some great new tools available in the media center this year.  We have even more Follett eBooks to download on tablets and smartphones, a new YouTube channel with how-to videos, and our apps for managing your media center account, ebooks, and audiobooks have improved greatly!

More info about all these are coming soon!  Have a great year!

Audiobooks - Free & Paid

If you enjoy audiobooks, add a visit to Audible to your to-do list.  Their service (powered by Amazon) allows you to download thousands of audiobooks to your smartphone, mp3 player, or even your Kindle.  You can purchase audiobooks like The Hunger Games at regular prices (between $20 & $30 a piece) or you can become a subscriber and download a book each month (along with some other perks) for a monthly fee of $14.95. 

That said, if you're into the classics (or have to read one for class), such as A Tale of Two Cities or Pride & Prejudice, you can get those audiobooks for the low, low price of FREE.  For a great list of most of the free titles available on Audible, check out this article from Open Culture. 

Audible is a great site to visit if you're better at listening to those AR books than you are at actually reading them.

P.S. - Just want free audiobooks?  Try LibriVox!

Destiny Quest Mobile App

Keep up with your library media center account on your smartphone!  With the new Destiny Quest app, you can renew your books, hold titles that you want to read, check your due dates, organize personal bookshelves, recommend books to others and submit book reviews.  In addition to these great features, you can also search the catalog to find library media center books and resources that you need. 

To get the app just search "Destiny Quest" in the app store of your iOS or Android device.  You'll need to input our catalog url: http://lisd-lib.lorenaisd.net/, choose your school, and then input your username and password (the same one you use for AR and computer logins). 

Coming soon, the app will allow you to check out and read our collection of ebooks on your device, though we are not sure when that will be available.  Until then, it's a pretty cool app by itself.  Check it out, and if you have any questions, ask Mr. B. or Mrs. Webb.

Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire

Amazon and Barnes & Noble are in the middle of an all out e-reading war. Their latest additions have expanded the ability of the e-reader to music, movies, gaming apps and much more. The Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire have given users more functionality at prices that are not as frightening as the iPad (which hasn't budged from its $500 mark yet). These tools are a viable option for someone who wants a tablet that has many solid functions but isn't ready to shell out more than $300. Here are some ads for each.

The critics are really split on which one is the better device.  The most consistent thing I have found is that the best device for you depends on you alone.  The Nook Tablet seems to run better overall - better battery life, smoother transitions, and so on.  The Kindle Fire has Amazon behind it - so there is more content available (though Amazon is pretty much your only source for that content).  Check out PCWorld for a detailed compare and contrast.

Click the "Read more" button to see some commercials for each, and you can find more specs from Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Zotero

The worst thing about a research paper is usually finding sources and creating that bibliography or works cited page. Here's a great tool to help you with those pesky citations!

Zotero is a Firefox add-on (which means you can't use it with Internet Explorer, but I think you'll want to download Firefox once you see what it does...if you haven't already joined the Firefox revolution).  Once you've downloaded the program, it's easy to add citation records straight from your browser - there's even one-click functionality from sites like Amazon and Ebscohost.  I can't really describe it with words.   Watch this video to check out what it can do.


(You probably want to maximize this to be able to see it well enough.)

Hunger Games Movie

As many of you know, one of the most popular young adult series in the last few years is making its way to the big screen.  The Hunger Games is set to be released in 2012, and Vanity Fair was kind enough to share this cast photo with the world.  You can find a story about the casting process and an interactive version of this photo that tells which character each actor is portraying here.  If you are interested in seeing the latest trailer for the film or just learn some other great info, your source for movie information, IMDB (the Internet Movie Database), has a full page dedicated to the film as well.

If you're a movie trivia buff or find yourself stuck in the middle of a game of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," then there is also an IMDB app for your smartphone.  It's extremely user-friendly and puts IMDB's complete entertainment database at your fingertips.