Library Tech Event

By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2007

Media specialists searching for an event that covers everything from MUVES (multi-user virtual environments) to RSS feeds might want to attend the SIGMS forum on June 26 at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta.

This year, SIGMS, the special interest group for media specialists of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), has planned its own event. “Sometimes as a media specialist, I go to a conference and wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have come,” says Peggy Milam Creighton, SIGMS president and library media specialist at Compton Elementary School in Powder Springs, GA.

This won’t be the case at this year’s forum, as the event has been moved to a larger venue due to high registration, says Milam Creighton. The two-hour conversation (10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) is free—but Milam Creighton urges those interested to register at www.iste.org/necc.

Presenters will include David Warlick, who will promote RSS feeds as a new library “bookshelf,” while Lisa Perez of the Chicago Public Schools will cover virtual world Second Life, where her avatar goes by the moniker Elaine Tulip. Alice Yucht, Joyce Valenza, and Will Richardson are other panelists.

Then there’s the Library Crawl, a SIGMS-sponsored field trip to the Carter Library and other high points. NECC will also feature a 21st century media center playground, a hands-on model of the school library of the future.