Software to Make You Look Marvelous

Media specialists know the effect of presenting information via well-done PowerPoint presentations, but how many actually use this software in the school library? Microsoft's latest version of PowerPoint will enhance your lessons, while captivating students with 3-D effects, sophisticated charts, photos, and custom designs that accommodate most of your teaching needs. It's also a great way to get your message across to your teaching colleagues and administrators.

Library media specialists can use PowerPoint to support classroom lessons by asking teachers to load their lessons on to the school's server in a single folder. School librarians can then create a simple Web page to supplement the lectures. You can even take it one step further by placing your Web page on the server and creating a shortcut to your site on all of the school's computer desktops. PowerPoint will automatically launch once students choose the PowerPoint file on your Web page.

Teachers who use interactive whiteboards during lessons can take JPEG screen shots of each board before erasing and place the digital images in a folder on the school's server. This can easily be turned into a PowerPoint photo album, which is a great help for absent students or those who need to review a lesson.

Media specialists can create colorful slide shows that have annotated screen shots instructing parent volunteers and students how to check books in and out of the library. You can even turn your PowerPoint presentation into printed manuals by using odd-numbered slides to print diagrams and even-numbered slides to print text. When you click "File-Print-Handouts," the screen shots will appear on the left-hand side of the printout and the descriptions will appear on the right side. To see a PDF file of the manual I created for our school's Homework Online initiative, go to http://nausetschools.org/hwonline/student_instructions.pdf. These handouts can include bibliographic citations and descriptions of where the information can be found, as well as effective search strategies and a description and illustration of the research process. If you click PowerPoint's "Handout Printing" option, which offers three slides per page, it will create enough space to the right of the slides for students to take notes.

Another important administrative part of your job is maintaining accurate statistics and budgetary records to present to your administrator. This information is usually kept in a spreadsheet program, such as Excel, but you can deliver a more powerful presentation if the data is transferred from Excel into PowerPoint and accompanied by additional information. If you print the slides, you'll have a professional report to hand to your administrators.

PowerPoint can also be used for advocacy efforts. A student-made PowerPoint slide show with video of students working in the library can be shown at school board meetings. Digital images of new books in your collection can be strategically placed in a looping slide show as students enter the media center. You can even create short booktalks on the slides. To encourage students to come to the media center before and after school, try setting up a continuously running PowerPoint presentation in your school's front hall with information on library hours, resources, and programs.

Kathy Schrock (kathy@kathyschrock.net) is the administrator for technology for the Nauset Public Schools in Cape Cod, MA.