So, now looking at Social Reading...
I am a fan of GoodReads. I have an account. I am also a member of several groups, including the Capital Region BOCE Elementary Book Group and the Capital Region BOCES YA Book Group (just in case I get moved, so I can try to stay up-to-date). I am moderator for the Schoharie Central Professional Book Group, which we use mostly to keep track of what we've read. The thing about GoodReads is that it can be time-consuming. I use it in fits and spurts, entering lots of books in a short time, not daily. I do like the recommendations feature and I follow several other librarians entries. Too often, though, people are hesitant to say that a book is bad. There are lots of reviews saying how wonderful books are, but not so many saying they stink!
I must say that I still don't understand the "customize the “get a copy” section on your own account with links to your local libraries" feature. I can't find any of my local libraries, but when I try to "If your library isn’t already listed, you can add it," I am adding a link for one particular book. I don't have time to add a link for every book I read individually! Maybe for the books I want to read someday I could do that. Maybe there is something I just don't understand.
Then, there are eBooks. I have used a number of them on different devices -my phone, a tablet and a kindle. (I actually borrowed a BOCES kindle for one summer to get a good feel for what it is like.) I just don't really like them for personal use. I think I am one of those people who are really affected by the blue light spectrum. Being on any electronic device before bed, revs me up so I can't sleep. IF only there were a way to change their displays to be more in the red range, like some of the new LED lightbulbs are beginning to do.
With that said, I have done a lot of exploring for school. Our SLS has an OverDrive account (as does our local public library). I try to market those to the students and their parents. I looked into setting up our own school OverDrive collection, but it was both prohibitively expensive and surprisingly disappointing. Although I know there are a lot of eBooks out there, you can't really go into building a collection by knowing what titles you would like to have; many just aren't available. It seems to be better to know a subject or a genre you want to add. By the way, people should know that they will presumably need a variety of Bookseller apps to access all of the available OverDrive books (some only in Kindle format, Nook, etc.)
I ended up choosing to start a FollettShelf collection with books for each grade based on their curriculum. One of the advantages is that some of the books can be purchased as multi-user, not just individual copies. Another plus is that it gives the teacher's something to show on their interactive projectors. I try to market the FollettShelf collection to the parents and students as well. Follett does have apps for their product, too. Earlier this year, Mackin sent me an e-mail about getting free MackinVIA books, too. I quickly signed us up. In some ways, I think that their product may be more intuitive from a user standpoint, but it doesn't seem to have as nice of a search feature.
I looked into Freebooksy briefly. Interesting how in addition to free eBooks, they have raffles for physical book giveaways. Since I don't really like reading eBooks, it isn't really for me. I look forward to hearing if anyone knows of any great sources for kids.
I signed up for NetGalley, but I have not been approved for any titles yet. It will be interesting to see what I think of this site in the future.
The idea of Calibre is interesting, but my need would be mostly for school. I would love it if it could be network-hosted so that it could assist the teachers in finding the eBooks that are physically on our network, but I don't see that the desktop is very workable in my professional setting.
I had looked at WeGiveBooks before, but they now have a lot more books! I think that I will try to use The Snowy Day with my HeadStart group on Monday! I like all of my students to experience eBooks just in case they have access. I think that they will probably find it exciting. I want to tell the teachers at my school and the Capital Region BOCES Elementary Book Group, too. I can see teachers using the WeGiveBooks books on an interactive projector to teach reading skills and/or to teach content. I plan to add the link to my website, too.
I have looked into the International Children's Digital Library before, but I decided to look again. It does not seem to have nonfiction, so it is not as exciting to me. Still, I think it is worthy of a link on my website. The searching by cover color is weird though. I try to tell my students NOT to choose books by how they look and here is a website encouraging it. Very odd.
The DayByDay Family Literacy Calendar coming soon for New York looks like it might be exciting. South Carolina has links and access to Tumblebooks on theirs! Definitely worth remembering.
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